Amazon released a demo of the voice service for the Raspberry Pi and now includes the wake work “Alexa” so no more need to press a button to start recognition.
https://github.com/alexa/alexa-avs-sample-app/wiki/Raspberry-Pi
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Took me around 45 mins to install and get this working on a Pi2. Most of the time was the download of all the support files.
Note quite as nifty as the echo because there is beep after you say “Alexa” that you have to wait for and then a longer pause after you speak but it is a good starting point.
Now to dig into the code and see what I can do with this. Integration with the home automation would be a good starting point.
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KFTC 
Video?
Kentucky Fried Tender Chicken?
Killer Freaking Top Code?
Kinky Federal Trade Commission?
@ Terrence - [quote]phrase of encouragement coined by anchorman Ernie Anastos[/quote]
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Quick test. Surprisingly it even picks my voice up from a few meters away and the mic is behind the LCD facing away from the rear.
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@ Dave McLaughlin - I was not expecting your voice to be that accent; but that’s a great demo
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Nice. Thanks. What sort of mic arrangement are you using?
What I found interesting was the delay between the console showing the wake word was detected and the notification you could continue. If that could be shrunk it could be much more like the full Echo experience!
I was curious about that. Since I don’t own an Echo, I wasn’t sure what the normal delay was. I assumed that was just the time it took to get a response from the web service. Is that the case with this or is it just taking the Pi longer to respond?
I don’t own an Echo either, but the Alec Baldwin ads seem to imply it’s all handled in a single sentence, “Alexa play Missy Elliot” rather than “Alexa, play Missy Elliot”.
Correct. The real device has no delay. This is just a feature of the sample. It can be removed with code changes. Something I will be working on.
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@ Dave McLaughlin - So what causes the delay in the first place?
Echo is now available in the UK. I have to say its frickin awesome! The language processing is encredibly good. you don’t need to wait for Alexa to respond. Just say the full sentence starting with “Alexa”. Its probably the only bit of Tech my wife has ever been excited about and she loves it
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There is no delay with the real Echo. The delay in the sample is simple enough to get around. The Seeed Studio re-speaker with Alexa voice services also has no delay.
Setup Node-red on a RPi with Moquittoe MQTT and also the Amazon Echo HA Bridge. Now get some modules from Itead Studio and install the MQTT firmware from (tech.scargill.net) and impress your wife with voice controlled lights etc. 
@ Dave McLaughlin - I’ve already got Philips Hue lights and Samsung Smarthtings home Automation and Alexa fully supports both
I now walk round the house like a BOSS
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